#IT IS LITERALLY SO BLATANT AND IS SO IRRESPONSIBLE LIKE

[flagellant]

Hey, iHeart Network? Yeah, I already fucking hated your guts for other unrelated reasons, and I just gotta say, I wasn't expecting to add that you're hosting a podcast which advertises itself, as, quote verbatim: "What would you do if a secret cabal of the nation's most powerful people asked you to overthrow the government?" and like, yeah, don't worry, I get that it's actually about the 1930s FDR thing, but I really feel like doing this post-January 6th in this political climate, and by "this" I mean saying that there is an ACTUAL, VERBATIM, "SECRET CABAL" MADE UP OF "THE NATION'S MOST POWERFUL PEOPLE" WHOSE PURPOSE IS TO "OVERTHROW THE GOVERNMENT"

is just maybe the slightest bit questionable. perhaps you might want to consider this as a polite suggestion to maybe not advertise a podcast which sounds like it's about to fucking tell me about the Secrets of the Council of the Elders of Zion is actually based in historical accuracy

[zazikels]

people with their fave's extra hours of dialogue and double the romance scenes claiming the char in question wasn't l*rian's writers' pet... I can't this is a stupid fucking hill to die on and that is objectively provable there is a reddit thread where someone literally did the maths. You are just wrong and you need to shut up.

[a-dinosaur-a-day]

Mammal bias is esp rampant in the pet community. I've had pet reptiles and spiders/tarantulas since I was about 10 and being told right to me face that the animals I cared for and cherished were gross and weird and some even "jokingly" staid they would gladly stomp on.

Nothing against dogs and cats but if you wouldn't say that about someone's dog or cat why would you say that to anyone who loves their pets?

Yup yup yup. Honestly, I've always known mammal bias was a thing, and when I majored in biology it was shoved down my throat, but I kind of figured its scope was limited or not really that damaging until I got my pet birds.

Apartments list themselves as pet friendly, but they only ever mean cats and dogs (and good luck trying to find ones that have other pets listed as okay online - same for temporary lodging)

Vets are usually only trained in cats and dogs, and it is impossible to find vets for other species close by - sometimes, at all - fish literally are done a major disservice alone

Homes and group living areas like townhouses, apartment buildings, etc. are not built with the safety of non-catdog pets in mind. How many have linked ventilation systems, which would endanger birds to emissions from other homes?

Service animals can only be dogs. Because dogs were literally bred to be our obedient servants. Never mind that other animals are more intelligent, and can also be trained. Just dogs.

Heck, cats and dogs even form a binary! Are you a cat lover or a dog lover? If you say neither, you get weird looks, and are accused of hating animals! Even though that's only two animals out of the billions!

And of course there's the death threats. Whether its someone threatening to kill someone's pet tarantula, to stomp on their snake, or eat their chicken, that just comes up again and again.

Cats and Dogs are elevated to essentially human status, because they are companion animals in our society and seen as part of the family. But no one can fathom that other pets are seen as family, too, that we'd like the same level of care and respect given to them.

like take this example: many people suggest eating non-cat/dog pets on the internet, and they're hardly ever called out or criticized. "It's just a joke!" and all that. Never mind these pets are beloved animals, and not actually a threat to anyone. Meanwhile, outdoor cats are actively causing ecological collapse. But if you suggest any form of aggressive population control - not of people's pets, of feral cats - you get called a monster. These aren't even beloved animals, just the *concept* of a cat is enough to make people lose their heads. this is a blatant double standard. an actively damaging double standard.

anyways if you want a non cat/dog pet remember to research vets and housing rules for your area before you accidentally screw yourself.

I would be remiss if I didn't add an afterthought that while small mammal pets and other mammals other than cats and dogs do have better vet treatment and some other benefits thanks to mammal bias, they often face similar struggles, and this hierarchy for pets really has cats and dogs on a pedestal lording over everyone else - including rabbits, hamsters, and especially mice and rats, and all other mammal pets as well as pets in other groups.

I hate cat-dog supremacy so much it sends me into a blind rage. Like, there isn't a 24-hr emergency vet for birds within three hours of me. I either have to drive that long or wait till my (hour away!) daytime vet opens up if I have an emergency. Birds can bleed out fast. This is just negligence. And there are so many animals, not only birds, that have been bred for captivity and rely on us. It is irresponsible and cruel that we designate them second-class pet...izens.

oof, you probably didn't expect this long of a ramble, I'll leave it off there.

[traincat]

i was trying to explain to my mom how the harry potter game is antisemitic (we are not jewish) and she didnt really seem to get it. she was like "i mean if they were wearing yarmulkes i would be like yeah, the goblins are supposed to be jewish". do you know of a good source that i could send her that would break down the jewish stereotypes and how they arent just coincidence? if you dont have a good source dont worry about it but i saw you reblog stuff about it so i thought you might. thank you for your time!

I have a few resources I'm linking in my reply here, but I'm probably not going to be answering other questions about this because, to be honest, as a Jewish person in fandom, it's stressful. I'm reblogging stuff about Hogwarts Legacy because I'm Jewish and the antisemitism in the game is vile to the point where it feels irresponsible for me not to address it in some way, and because it ties into a lot of the other antisemitism I've personally faced in fandom when speaking about anything Jewish. I feel like your mother may have some trouble grasping the antisemitism because she seems to be viewing Judaism solely as a faith, when Judaism is an ethnoreligion -- a religion, an ethnic group, and wide and varied culture, and so stereotypes about Jewish people don't have to involve religious symbols and very often involve specific physical features, ie, big noses. The goblins in Harry Potter are short, ugly, and they have huge noses -- these are all features commonly associated in antisemitic caricature with Ashkenazi Jewish men. The idea that the goblins would only be valid caricatures of Jewish people if they were wearing a specific piece of clothing is troubling because it invokes the yellow stars Jews were made to wear by the Nazis. (For the record, my uncle wears a yarmulke full time, but the other men on my mother's side of the family do not. This does not make them less Jewish.)

But if your mother needs a symbol associated with the Jewish faith to help her understand, it's been noted that the game features a "goblin horn" that is very clearly a shofar, an important piece of Judaica which is used for religious purposes. (There's also a link between the date the horn is given in the game and a very brutal pogrom; more info in the twitter thread linked. If you want to get an idea of how virulent antisemitism is in fandom, the response to this thread and others like it are A Lot.) Like I can't say enough how blatant this is, and the reason it's getting by so many people are 1) a lot of non-Jewish people are at least on a base level, if not actively antisemitic themselves, basically okay with antisemitism, because antisemitism is so present in our culture and 2) uneducated on Jewish matters.

It's also important to note that in the Harry Potter world, goblins are specifically bankers. This is how they are first introduced to readers and this is their primary association in world: the goblins are literally guarding the gates on huge piles of wizard gold. This is an antisemitic stereotype, as Jews are often perceived as being money grubbing and greedy, as well as "secretly controlling" the greater world's wealth. More info in this wikipedia article: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economic_antisemitism. This thread by Rabbi Danya Ruttenberg also breaks down the connection between the "greedy Jew" stereotype and the historical precedent for Jewish moneylenders, a profession that was foisted on them because it was distasteful to Christians: https://twitter.com/TheRaDR/status/1057333224538624001. Harry Potter is not unique in these depictions. There is an example of this in, say, Star Trek, where the Ferengi are a race of greedy, money-obsessed aliens who have exaggerated "ugly" features and who are often depicted as oversexed, especially when it comes to women of other, more classically attractive alien races (this is another antisemitic stereotype of Jewish men). But the Ferengi are also all played by Jewish actors, and in the show where they feature most, Deep Space 9, they're protagonists. So while the Ferengi are rooted in antisemitic stereotypes, the involvement of Jewish creatives and their role in the story makes it a more complicated, nuanced situation. This is not what is happening in Hogwarts Legacy.

It's not a coincidence that the goblins in Harry Potter have always been depicted as bankers right from book one. While you can theoretically separate the series from Rowling's transphobia (although, y'know, you shouldn't), the antisemitism is baked into the series. Hogwarts Legacy just takes it to a whole other incredibly overt level. The point of the game is violence against Jews, and we see that because it's revealing just how many people out there are fine with demonizing Jews specifically and the level of violence Jewish people often face in fandom when they speak out about antisemitism.

[sunsafewriting]

Do A Flip - chapter 4 excerpt (full chapter will be finished and uploaded soon).

Lilith.

“— so Bea and I are gonna get a place together,” Ava concludes happily, moving her little figurine four places and handing Camila literally all of her money, because Camila now owns both blue hotels. “Which is cool, right?” 

It’s actually fucking ridiculous, but no one at the table will say so. Even Lilith, because Shannon, Mary, and Camila are all glaring at her, like she can’t be trusted to keep her mouth shut. Which she can, thank you very much. 

If Ava and Beatrice want to escalate their bullshit, that’s their business. As long as Lilith is never expected to set foot inside their apartment, then Lilith will continue her reluctant detente with Ava. No matter what Shannon says, it is a detente unless Lilith actually hits Ava. Threatening her doesn’t count. 

And — fine. Lilith can admit that Ava’s not the worst person out there, She’s too energetic and too annoying and has such a bad sense of humour that Lilith has taken to just walking away if she so much as starts to look vaguely amused, but Ava’s not as irresponsible as Lilith first took her for. She shows up for the kid, and she shows up for Beatrice. And so Lilith has begrudgingly afforded Ava a spot on the list of people she’ll actually spend time around. Only if her company is diluted by the presence of others, of course; Lilith’s not going to do anything crazy, like hang out with her one-on-one. 

“That is very cool,” Camila replies, adding Ava’s cash to the small mountain already piled up in front of her. 

Ava takes two fifties from Beatrice’s stash — utterly blatant in her cheating, utterly unbothered by it. “It’s a loan, Bea. I’ll pay you back.” 

“I’m sure.”

“Anyway, it’ll suck that we won’t be neighbours anymore,” Ava says to Camila, “but I can come visit. And you can come over to our place whenever.” 

Somehow, Shannon must actually see the words just make sure you knock form in Lilith’s mind, because she nudges Mary, who kicks Lilith under the table. 

“Are you staying in the area?” Shannon asks smoothly. 

“Everything’s here, like Bea’s uni and St Michael’s, so we’re gonna try.” 

“I talked to the landlord about keeping our apartment, but he wants to turn it into an AirBnB,” Beatrice adds, with no small amount of judgement in her voice. 

Lilith has already heard Beatrice’s lecture about rental policies and tenant protection. Ava has, too. At least they were all in the car together at the time, which meant that Lilith wasn’t subjected to that look Ava gets on her face when Beatrice really starts in on a tangent about something. 

“It’s a shit market,” Mary agrees. “You’ve got to know someone.”

There’s a general grumbling of agreement. 

Lilith sighs. “I know someone,” she admits. If her mother could see Lilith now, offering something without getting anything in return — not even a signed agreement preventing Ava from practically sitting in Beatrice’s lap when they do movie nights — she’d disown her. “Neil from my Thursday class is going back to the States, so he needs someone to take over his lease. His street is close to the kid. And your stupid bar.” 

All of them turn to her. 

She shrugs, uncomfortable, then bails, going back to the kitchen to pour herself another drink. At least Mary keeps good gin here. 

Because no good deed goes unpunished, Ava follows after her, smiling entirely too much like someone who thinks Lilith is being nice to her, and not enough like someone who appreciates that Lilith was only trying to avoid having to listen to Ava complain. 

“You could really set that up?” Ava asks. 

“Yes.” 

Neil has never said no to Lilith. But then, that’s a power she has over most people. It’s probably something to do with being tall and hot and smart and accomplished. 

“That would be very, very awesome of you.” 

“Mm.” 

Ava, with unprecedented audacity, takes the bottle of gin right out of Lilith’s hands. 

“What are you —”

“Hush. You’ll like it,” she says, grabbing a few other things from the cupboard and carefully pouring it all into the cup. 

Lilith allows this, even if only because Ava’s confidence in her bartending could stand to be taken down a peg — Beatrice has been brainwashed by Ava’s outfits; there’s no way her drinks are that good, if you’re not distracted by the low-cut tops — and Lilith is giving herself a freebie to be a bit mean. 

Ava finishes mixing her elaborate nonsense and hands the cup back to Lilith, watching her expectantly. 

Lilith takes a sip. 

It’s really fucking excellent, and she’s not fast enough to stop pleasant surprise from showing on her face. 

“Ha!” Ava crows, smacking her hand against the countertop. “You like it. And you like me.” 

“I don’t like you,” Lilith bites back. “I like Beatrice. And Diego.”

Beatrice is always going to be a sister to her, in the way that Lilith understands sisters: as people whose stupidity you tolerate because a part of you is contingent on their presence in your life; people who understand you, sometimes too much. And Diego — well, one time, he’d let her trick Ava into leaning against wet paint, and she’d returned the favour by letting him tell her about underground turtles, so that’s something. 

But Ava is undeterred. “They’re my favourite people, so you liking them means that I like you. Too bad.” 

Lilith takes another sip of her drink. It doesn’t miraculously drop in quality, and Ava remains regrettably gleeful. “I could squash you.”

“I know.” 

Lilith hates how certain Ava seems that she won’t. 

-

Here's the link to the earlier chapters if you're interested: https://archiveofourown.org/works/43728831

[styrofauxm]

So……has anyone else seen those compilations of Twitter posts that “prove” Israel is going to lose by praising literal terror groups? No? Just me and some people I’ve unfollowed and blocked? Okay. I’m still going to talk about it because they piss me off.

But before I start please be aware that I am not a political scientist, nor do I have any expertise in geopolitics. I am simply a person with a computer and a passion for research. The things I say here could be wrong. I am also trying to get you to agree with me, so there will be bias. Furthermore, I am doing my best to just share the most relevant information, so a lot is left out. I will source everything, and link proof that my sources are trustworthy, but I still strongly encourage you to do your own research and come to your own conclusions.

Also, TL;DR: the Middle East is really complicated and ascribing "right" or "wrong" to any one group is irresponsible

Starting with the Houthi Rebels (because I know the most about them and thus have noticed the blatant misrepresentations of their actions and beliefs the most).

The Houthi Rebels are a repressive (forcing people to abide by strict religious practices) group seeking control of Yemen. Their rallying cry is "God is great, death to America, death to Israel, a curse upon the Jews, victory to Islam." So just explicit genocidal ideation and antisemitism. (Council for Foreign Relations, MediaBias/FactCheck Rating)

In Yemen, they are committing war crimes and have been for years (Reuters, MediaBias/FactCheck Rating). (The government of Yemen, along with Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, with military support from the US have been doing the same. But this isn't about the war itself).

They are also aligned with Iran (Council for Foreign Relations) and Russia (Atlantic Council, MediaBias/FactCheck Rating). Both of whom are repressive governments (World Population Review, MediaBias/FactCheck Rating) seeking control in the region (Center for Strategic and International Studies, MediaBias/Fact Check Rating. Note: this is an interview, but given that the interviewee has genuine expertise in the subject and has written for other credible sources about this exact topic, I feel comfortable with it).

Next, I also keep hearing about Hezbollah. I didn't know much about them before doing this, so please be on extra high alert for any mistakes I may make.

Hezbollah is a terror organization that has regularly committed atrocities against civilians, often specifically targeting Jewish groups (Council for Foreign Relations).

In the Israel-Hamas war, Hezbollah has launched rockets at civilian centers (Human Rights Watch, MediaBias/FactCheck. Note: this source is far more biased than I'd like, and it comes off even in that article. However, it is the most detailed explainer of Hezbollah's recent actions that I could find. Proceed with caution when you read it).

They are also backed by Iran (Reuters).

And finally, Hamas.

Hamas has, since it's founding, espoused explicit genocidal and antisemitic intentions (The Atlantic (accessible via 12ft.io), MediaBias/FactCheck Rating).

They have also committed war crimes in the Israel-Hamas war (UN News, this does not have a MediaBias/FactCheck rating, but other branches of the UN do. It's also just a recount of an independent report. Use your best judgement on whether you want to trust this).

They are also aligned with Iran (Reuters).

I'm not say that any of this lessens the atrocities that the government of Israel has committed against Palestinians. It doesn't. This post should not lessen your support for civilians.

But the reality of the situation is that there are no good military groups in this situation. It's complicated and messy. You need to be aware of the full implications of what you share, as it could very easily be misinformation, disinformation, or propaganda.

You can't take any social media posts at face value. Even if they are from a journalist, they don't get fact checked or reviewed by peers normally, allowing opinions and mistakes to slip through.

(Side note: if you want some more information about the Yemen Civil War, let me know. It's really complicated but I have done a lot of research on it)

[all-pacas]

I'm in love with the "and i am my father's son" fic of yours - enough for me to stop rolling my eyes at the "sister retcon" (I used to think "Why give him a baby sibling? The backstory we have was more than enough. The fact that the other details given in S8 were perfectly coherent with the ones given in S1 made the whole thing even more frustrating). The Rowan/Robert and Danielle/Victoria (just making up a name for the mom) are the best part(everyone in this family is so fucked up).

Is it me,or there was a hint of envy in Robert's outburst while talking with his sister? I mean,she seemed to feel supported by their dad in a way Chase never felt. Of course,there was fear and resentment. However,money never appeared to be enough for his problems(irresponsible alcoholic mom,absent dad,a baby sister with no one to care for her). Whereas Danielle was clearly having a good time in the clinic - and even making friends(a great asset when it comes to handling addiction). That might even be a parallel with Rowan himself - it might be mere speculation,but I feel that him being an immigrant from a country that has faced serious hardships during most of the 20th century while his children are a couple of "sunny rich brats" in a peaceful,stable country didn't come without any kind of difficult emotions,to say the least. Therefore,whenever Robert and/or Danielle were being particularly "unpleasant," Rowan noped out of there. Okay,I know him being from Central Europe is something that only happened because the writers couldn't be bothered to hire an actual Aussie instead of picking some random old white guy with a shit Australian accent and then tossing in some random nationality to excuse the accent, but they still did it.

Anyways,I love the fic. Now deal with the word vomit 🤡

ahhhhhhh oh my goodness thank you! And yeah, at first the Sister Retcon seemed so blatant and pointless, but the way it just makes history repeat is just ! Chase literally does the same thing to her as their dad did to them, it's so fucked up, it's so good. It adds so much. And honestly, his backstory was fucked enough without adding the trauma of raising his sister. I love it, because on the one hand it's totally understandable. A child shouldn't be put in that position. It is perfectly reasonable that Chase would cut and run. On the other hand, it's absolutely not fair to 'Danielle.' It's cruel, it makes things worse. It's just. It's so good.

Is it me,or there was a hint of envy in Robert's outburst while talking with his sister? I mean,she seemed to feel supported by their dad in a way Chase never felt.

That's what I was going for, yes! :) He sees Danielle doing exactly what their mother did, and he's sort of lashing out and panicking. He just immediately assumes history has repeated and he's about to be stuck taking care of her and watching her die. On the other hand, Danielle… fff it's so weird because it's headcanons for my fic, but. I feel like she and Rowan actually got along okay. Rowan did seem to regret how Chase had to deal with everything when he left; it's been a decade or so; he's… still not parent of the year, but he takes Danielle in after 'Victoria' dies. He's paying to send her to rehab. He's… trying.

And Chase never got that support, he never got Rowan trying to parent. He can't imagine it's real, he fully believes dad is going to maybe try for a week or two and then kick Danielle to the curb, or that if Danielle relapses once then it'll be on him to take care of her. He just doesn't trust or believe that Rowan can change, is capable of being a parent, and thinks Danielle is naive and stupid for it. But he's jealous, too.

Quoting myself here:

"You'll be fine," Robbie says. When their mum finally died, their dad had taken her in, given her a bedroom done up in pinks and frills. Not Robbie. She'd only been four; he'd been seventeen and eyeing flights out of the country, across the world.

…Like, part of this is that she's four years old, Rowan can't just toss her on the streets. Meanwhile Chase is old enough that he can rebel, that he trots off to England for seminary. I think he resents Rowan for not taking him in, but also hypocritically doesn't think about the fact he skipped town, you know?

Okay,I know him being from Central Europe is something that only happened because the writers couldn't be bothered to hire an actual Aussie

The weirdest part to me — I looked this up once. The actor they hired is Belgian. Why did they make him Czech? Clearly, being European was a choice, being Czech was more of a choice, they could have made him be a Belgian immigrant, but…??

But yeah. Rowan… honestly seems like a fascinating dude in and of himself. He grew up in Central Europe! Assuming he's the same age as his actor, he was born in 1938, so he got to live through German occupation, Soviet occupation… it doesn't excuse him being a shit parent, but I can absolutely see how all that would make him simply incapable of being anything but deeply repressed and miserable. He throws money at his children because he can't connect with them on any level. He couldn't cope with his wife's alcoholism and addictions and traumas, because he absolutely is the type who doesn't really think mental illness exists; you should just suck it up and cope. And to have this emotional wife, this emotional son, this much younger daughter (I headcanon that 'Victoria' got pregnant on purpose to 'save the marriage.' It did not work. Danielle was not a wanted child by anyone.)… like, he's still the worst. But it's just a perfect storm.

Anyway. I had an idea of writing a fanfic set much later on — Cameron finding out Danielle exists and deciding to Force Reconcile the siblings. I have a… lot of thoughts about all of it. I can go into it if you'd like!

[blazingblorbos]

Okay Genshin 4.1 thoughts dump because if I don't compile my thoughts somewhere I will literally implode. Anyways, spoilers for the Fontaine Archon Quest so far (as of Chapter 4, the Version 4.1 update) under the Read More (a couple paragraphs under, but you catch my drift)

So. Something I have always absolutely adored about Genshin's storytelling is the way it goes about presenting its gods as "Human too"...

At first, it was seen painfully obvious through Ei and her incredibly human response to grief and trauma (a lot of people thought she was being unreasonable, and yeah for a ruler of an entire nation, closing yourself off to the outside world certainly seems - and is - irresponsible. And then... you consider how easily any other normal person would have done the same thing, if not worse, if they had lost nearly everyone they loved in quick succession, while also being personally responsible for a handful of those deaths).

And upon further reflection on the topic, you can see blatant traces of it present in every archon. And I don't just mean their trying to blend into/ further their understanding of humans, human society, and human nature.

I mean, Venti is kinda hedonistic and aloof; Zhongli wasn't always as wise and so intricately-versed in his knowledge about so many things - before the Archon War, he was more of a brute who preferred to solve things head-on (literally) as opposed to thinking things through; Nahida- oh don't even get me started on Nahida. Her self-doubt and insecurity as a result of facing constant beratement and feelings of inferiority to Rukkhadevata; her constant desire to learn more (both for her namesake as the God of Wisdom, to prove herself, and for her own curiosity's sake); her child-like nature (as a result of her research and human observation ofc!!! but still adorable none-the-less; I mean "dook-dook" !?! come on!)...

But now with Furina, oh. I think we've entered a BRAND NEW level and it's part of the reason why I absolutely love her so much.

In classic good-story-telling practice, Genshin achieves all of this through "show-not-tell" and it's world-class ability of characterizing its characters (IN MY OPINION ! I love them so much, okay?). And from the second I MET this girl to the very last line of 4.1's archon quest, it has been made painfully abundant to me that

Furina is just a child.

She has. NO IDEA what she's doing!!! Now, the underlying reasons for this have yet to be seen, and will most likely be tackled in the very next Archon Quest chapter, but if you'll allow me to speculate right now... Knowing that Egeria also conducted trials for citizens who broke the law (meaning she should have also been a God of Justice), I believe whole-heartedly that it was her who built the entire system Furina and Neuvillette are running right now. Meaning, I'm confident Furina has absolutely nothing to do with it. The ONLY (and I think I truly mean ONLY) thing Furina did in the time since she inherited the role was: change the perception of what justice and its deliverance should be into something a lot more akin to a dramatic play, only enacted for people's enjoyment.

Which includes her lack of knowledge on the Oratrice. Furina didn't create it. How could she? She's so utterly ignorant on what it is, how it works, and dare I say what it's truly even for.

The moment I read this statement I convinced myself that it had to have been the previous Hydro Archon. And while I concede that: looking back on the wording of this statement now, it seems like its existence would only be beneficial under someone like Furina's ruling… But, I'm willing to just chalk that up to "Egeria had great future-sight" (or something more along the lines of: she trusted the machine to help keep her in check so false charges were less likely; and it just so happens that its decision making is carrying the court system now under Furina’s rule).

Like many things related to Fontaine's history, it would seem, Egeria being solely responsible for the creation of all these staple facilities and aspects of the nation's inner workings would shed light on why Furina is so unknowing. She had nothing to do with it. And while I'm no envoy from Celestia, so I have no insight as to what the hell happens when a new Archon is born to fill in the void that was left, I think that whatever that process is (IF THERE EVEN IS ONE) went completely awry for Furina. She probably didn't even inherit the Gnosis - ever ! I'm thinking it's stuffed into the Oratrice somehow/somewhere. I'm thinking the "curse" Arlecchino sensed has something to do with that process of inheritance (or... lack thereof) going so wrong.

It’s obvious that Furina is running from something. Ignoring something. Distracting herself from the realities of the world with the “spectacle of the courtroom” (as Dain put it). And it’d be easy to just chalk it up to her being a little bitch with no deeper meaning but I don’t think that’s it.

Genshin doesn’t make it gods “just human”. They spend their time trying to prove that they’re “Human too”.

The underlying reasons for it have to lie in whatever happened when Furina was born. Cursed. Whether it was a curse to end up alone (as per the prophecy), or to never obtain the powers becoming of a god in this world... Whatever happened, it overwhelmed Furina to an unbearable degree, and naturally, like any Human would... she resorted to escapism. She found entertainment in the trials headed at the court room, realized she could make people like her by being this mascot of justice, and upon learning that it's only a matter of time before all of her subjects turn into puddles and she'll be left all alone… she decided to just- NOT think about it!! Who would?! That is a horrifying! revelation.

THAT is why she's so scared to fight - literally anyone!! She doesn’t have the power (and if she does she’s never had to use it).

THAT is why she’s turned out this way - a brat with very little humility, never knowing when to stop the act - because for centuries she’s lived in this little Lala-Land of a bubble denying the inevitable. A fate she was cursed with from the moment she inherited the title of “God”. She wasn’t really given powers, she wasn’t given dominion, and she most certainly hasn’t received instruction, or… ANY!?! HELP!! it seems, in understanding what it means to be an Archon (perhaps even in spite of those other perks she was “supposed” to receive.)

Born to be a god, yet being set up to suffer the loss of your entire people with almost no power to change it? That would fuck anyone up, even an Archon.

And it’s the way that they’ve shown how it’s fucked with Furina that blows my mind.

She’s so disconnected that Arle’s assassination attempt shocked her to her core. She’s a GOD!! Who would try to assassinate her (aside from the Fatui)!? She’s never had to even perceive the notion of being a target of something like that. Stack that on top of her general sense of helplessness in the greater context of what’s happening to her nation, and it makes sense that she broke down crying later that night... :(

Girlie just needs some help </3

[populationpensive]

As someone who works in hospital/critical care, do you have any advice on when to walk away? I’m an ICU RPh. I love the work that I do, I love the nurses and docs I work with, and speaking as objectively as possible I’ve always gotten great feedback from coworkers and admin. But my immediate supervisors (manager and director) are some of the worst people I’ve ever met.

They have huge egos and will not consider any process improvements that they don’t come up with. They’ll change the workflow and schedules on a dime to punish people and are pretty blatant about retaliating when folks try to speak up. They actively suppress reported med errors by turning into an at-fault event of whoever is reporting vs implementing process improvement. They refuse to do any kind of departmental education or training (“you’re here to work not to learn”), but then blame pharmacists for not staying “up to date” when the department is called out for following outdated guidelines. But they’ve been at the hospital 40 and 20 years respectively so despite multiple HR complaints from other staff, nothing ever seems to stick.

I hate the idea of leaving a place and coworkers (and patients!!!) that I love, especially given I don’t interact with them directly too much lout on the unit most of the day. Plus my family lives here and I’d hate to have to move away from them. But these two can and do make my life miserable when they feel like it, and I don’t know at what point it’s time to draw the line. Critical care is already such an emotionally draining field and I just feel more and more burned out each day. Idk if you have any experience dealing w something similar?

Hi nonnie,

I am so sorry you are experiencing this. I think it is fair to say that every hospital has some bullshit. Actually, a great pharmacist on my unit left for similar administrative concerns. The medication error suppression is SUPER concerning, though. That's just irresponsible and endangers patients. Also, the retaliatory component is also extremely concerning. That is something worth escalating to HR tbh.

Does your hospital have an ombudsman? Most hospitals do and they are meant to be a kind of liaison between the public (including employees) and the institution. If your hospital doesn't have one, your state surely does. This might be a good avenue for escalating your concerns if you feel compelled but feel limited by institutional roadblocks.

When reflecting about my job, there are definitely a lot of things I would want to change about my institution and unit. For me, I have to assess what I can change and what I can't. Of the things I can't change, what am I able to tolerate? (and by tolerate I mean literally just co-exist with an issue and focus on patient care.)

I had a co-worker quit 2 years ago because they hated our unit director. I mean, I'm not a fan of the dude either but as far as unit directors go, I would rather have someone who is lazy or laissez-faire as opposed to micromanagey. I have experienced WAY worse leadership, so for me, having this individual in this role isn't the worst thing ever. Is the unit director worth leaving a job I love? To me, it isn't.

If you enjoy your job, enjoy your co-workers, and get what you want out of that job, I personally don't see a reason to leave. But, you are the only one that knows what you can handle. If your job is taking up your thoughts outside of work and becoming a negative experience, then maybe it is best to move on.

-Poppi

[ehlnofay]

literally just stop a tes fan lmao...there are other fantasy games out there, or like. literally just make your own world, it's really easy if you hate the games so much (I say this as an ex-tes fan)

HA. this is the first time I've gotten an ask like this... I feel Important. thanks lmao

as a serious answer - less for whoever asked this and more for anyone else who doesn't understand the way I interact with the media but whose lack of understanding is actually in good faith - if I hated the games and everything about them, I wouldn't have continued to play them, much less made a blog about them and dedicated so much of my creative energy to fan content. We both know that I don't view this franchise as in all ways awful and irredeemable; we both know that there are things about it I like. I would not be here if there weren't.

However - and again, I dearly hope that we both know this - deriving enjoyment from a piece of media does not make it flawless. This is the case for everything, from the works of Shakespeare or Austen to the D&D web show I've watched religiously since I was fourteen. Consuming media critically - learning to recognise the flaws of something you enjoy and accept that those flaws and your enjoyment can coexist - rather than simply receiving its messages unquestioningly and refusing to consider nuance is so crucial, especially when fictional media is so central to how people interact with one another.

There is a lot I dislike about TES. Its handling of sensitive topics is often hamfisted at best and feeding heavily into dangerous narratives at worst, and refusing to acknowledge that would be irresponsible and cowardly. But at the same time, I derive a lot of joy from this world, its stories and lore, and most especially the pockets of genuinely lovely communities that have sprung up around it. I've met some very cool people through being active in this fandom space. I've seen some absolutely incredible ideas and fan creations working to refute the bigoted undertones (or just blatant overtones, as the case may be) in canon. I've written pieces that aimed to provide a counter-narrative to the harmful ones presented by the games' reductive portrayals and been told that they really touched people (which was so deeply heartening to hear). It isn't that I believe my amusement is more important than the bigotry its source upholds and perpetuates, but that I believe that by acknowledging that bigotry and working constructively and in tandem with the beautiful fan community to rectify it in our own space, maybe I can produce more caring, sensitive narratives and offset the harm a little bit.

(Also, I don't know you and I can play video games however the fuck I want.)

[flukeoffate]

Just some random thoughts about my own height and childhood.

I was 5’11” (roughly 181cm according to google) by the time I was 11 years old. Full grown woman at eleven.

I kinda want to know what it’s like to NOT feel like you are literally Robin Williams in the movie “Jack”, but you are a woman and somehow it feels even more unforgivable?

I looked like a grown adult in a children’s classroom. I wonder if other people have a better idea of what it feels like to grow up—I look at my sister’s kid, who is almost 13 and is still obviously a child, but a growth spurt very quickly on the way, and I’m like, wow. How are kids this short? He’s not short really, I’m just tall.

I didn’t feel like an ‘adult’ when I graduated high school. I grew up before I realized it was happening. I’d been taller than most of my teachers and my mother for years. I thought most or my peers saw me as an ogre with an anxiety problem and was into anime before it was cool, thus I was dubbed insane and childish by many people in high school. Maybe I was childish, but hey I was expected to take on adult responsibilities by the time I was 12—after all if you are adult sized, you are ready to help around the house, babysit grandma after school every day because she is senile and can’t even take herself to the bathroom anymore, and have all your homework done, before swim practice and dance class! Right? Well, what tween would NOT resort to anime or other visual media? I couldn’t handle more work. You crave distraction and fun stories are great for that kind of relief.

The point is, age wise, I was a child, and I was beholden to the rules and laws associated with childhood. Socially, people were prepared to treat me as an adult, one who often did not seem to belong. And so…after high school, I think I just turned into a person who felt like I needed permission from a higher power at all times to do things. I wasn’t rebellious. I felt like nothing had changed from school and so I followed any path that an ‘adult’ put before me. I always feel like I’m looking for approval from someone in charge. I’m still stuck in that mindset a bit and I’m nearly 40. I’m trying to break free of that mentallity…cuz I’m a fucking adult and I can’t keep looking at my peers and thinking: I must impress them with my poise, I must make myself smaller, I must use every masking technique I’ve ever learned to do with m blatant adhd just to make people like me. I keep thinking “I’m too irresponsible”, “I’m too loud”, “Now, I’m too antisocial.”

I think the Barbie Movie has me thinking about this a lot, given the plot and the characters. Like, I’m here wishing I could see myself in my teens. I have few photos. I wish I realized that I was actually really good looking…and frankly if I got past the fact that some of the peers i compared myself to weren’t ‘skinny’. They were still kids. I had regular thighs for my size. Other kids had thighs the width of my forearm. I developed a mild Barbie dislike, but not a hatred. I don’t hate dolls or Barbie at all. It was just weird. No one seemed my height till college and even then it was only a small portion of my friends.

Anyway, I’m trying to break free of all this nonsense. I’m an adult and I have a brain and ability to take my own life in my hands. I have recently replaced my ancient iMac with a top of the line model and and have reorganized my workspaces. I’m gonna work hard to get myself into some more art related pursuits, which might mean I’ll be going through an internet identity change. It’s time for a change. I want to make a little money from my art for once. I need to feel like…if my safety nets fell apart, I can climb back up.

[m0tel6mxzzy]

anyone else have a problem with the way monet’s relationship w/ food is portrayed?

(tw ed mention, i strongly think the show is loosely implying monet has disordered eating and that it hasn’t been properly handled by the writers)

i’m gonna be honest i really hate when tv shows nod at a character having disordered eating behaviors as them being vain. like ggrb does that with monet and luna in s1 and it really bothers me. and then on top of that luna and monet rarely get screentime so ur just supposed to assume they are fine as if they didn’t admit to severely disordered patterns.

and if it doesn’t ring a bell i specifically mean in s1 where luna convinces zoya to “never be seen eating in public” during her makeover, and monet chastising julien for doing so. i don’t like the idea of that just being,,, discarded? in general i find much of monet and luna being discarded, as if their storylines are added in at the very end and audrey and julien and the teachers are made top priority.

i just really find that irresponsible to have borderline disordered behaviors portrayed as monet being vain, and it feels almost demonizing. like, there’s no excuse for projecting her disordered habits onto julien, but her relationship with food is treated entirely flippant and of course it’s actually going to get worse as the seasons go by if it’s a running gag joke but never handled. especially when she’s given seldom given actual development.

monet is also getting to a point where her behavior is constantly harming herself and others and she seems to be going on a spiral because of her mother’s emotional abuse. like, she’s already dealing with untreated mental issues so why imply more as a joke that are never resolved.

i think there’s so much potential to have an actually fleshed out storyline where her disordered behaviors are actually addressed instead of throwaway comments. and that having her behaviors be laughed off is equally as romanticizing as portraying it in a glamorized manner. like in the writing and context there is so much subtext monet is dealing with what might be an eating disorder, but it is never handled. i also didn’t like the line abt intermittent fasting as a diet from monet’s minions. you could very well assume that was encouraged by monet herself, because given how she projects her disordered behaviors onto others, she has plausible reason to do that.

literally the writers keep giving blatant signs monet has a disordered relationship with food and it’s used for laughs when it could be used to represent a black woman as well as a lesbian struggling with and overcoming an eating disorder. not because she’s like blair/not like blair but because she’s her own person with individuals struggles.

[lettersfromthelevant]

You had me in the first half OP, not gonna lie. I genuinely thought this was going to be a post calling out the rabid anti-Israel bias that is present in Western media, and the fact that not a single news outlet is being held formally responsible for recklessly endangering Israelis and Jews around the world, but then I got sucker punched in the face.

This is the power the Israeli military has over the news

Do you not understand how fucking irresponsible this is?

I need Zionists to understand that the US military is not Judaism, and making the leap from "the US government exerts control over a lot of media" to "Jews control the media" shows more about you than me.

Clever attempt at trying to switch it from the IDF to the US military, even though you literally said, “This is the power the Israeli military has over the news.” You clearly have at least some idea that saying, "The IDF has power over the media", will lead people to interpreting it as, "The Jews have power over the media." No one criticizing you cares that you said the US government exerts control over a lot of media. We are specifically looking at the fact that you said the IDF exerts control over the media. Let’s get that straight.

All over social media there are people acting like Israelis are American citizens who can just "fly back to New Jersey" because we're all rich landlords. People are justifying their blatant support of a pogrom that resulted in the brutal rape and murder of 1,400 Israelis with antisemitic conspiracies; And you want to pretend that accusing the only Jewish state in the world of controlling the media is harmless behavior? That it isn’t somehow going to exacerbate the already wretched levels of antisemitism spreading everywhere?

It actually shows a lot about you, and I'm fucking tired of this trend where people look at Jews pointing out blatant antisemitic conspiracies and say, "if you see antisemitism, then you're the antisemite!" I honestly find it difficult to believe that you’re an Israeli, with how hard you’re pushing narratives that I see predominantly in goyishe or diaspora spaces, where Israelis are presented as devious “Zionist” manipulators that use antisemitism as a bludgeon. I’ve met a lot of self-hating Israelis in my time, but none so utterly stupid as to push a narrative that the IDF controls the media.

It should be clear to anyone with even a passing knowledge of Israel and the media, that Western media is extremely biased against Israel. If anything, this recent hospital travesty is just more evidence to prove that. The New York Times rarely, if ever, reports positively about Israel. I did not see one article from any Western news outlet about the Ashkelon hospital that got hit by rocket fire on October 11th. Why do Israeli hospitals getting bombed receive silence, while a parking lot in Gaza gets international attention not even half an hour after it gets struck by a rocket? The only reason you're upset these outlets edited their headlines is because it goes against your confirmation bias. You don't care about true news; you care about defaming Israel. And you'll platform harmful antisemitic conspiracies to do it.

Like oxford-comma said, as an unknown situation becomes clearer, news outlets are going to update their stories to corroborate new information. As it stands, the rocket responsible for the destruction at the hospital was caught on multiple different cameras from multiple different sources coming from Gaza. It is suspected to have been launched by the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, as the timeline of the explosion happens right alongside a volley of rocket fire launched from Gaza into Israel. This is not a new phenomenon. In 2021 alone, over 600 rockets launched by Hamas and the PIJ failed and fell back into Gaza. And as daylight broke, what was originally lauded as the “leveling of a hospital” that “killed 500” turned out to be a small crater in a parking lot with cars that caught on fire. It probably resulted in the deaths of no more than a few dozen people, if that.

I do think oxford was being pretty generous in his statement though because in my opinion, it’s deeply fucking unethical to just edit a headline quietly and never make an official public statement retracting the inflammatory accusations that had been made. Twenty years ago, journalistic dishonesty this egregious would have resulted in an on-air apology and multiple firings. You are complaining about the fact that the NYT is getting away with deceptive practices after they deliberately framed Israel as a war criminal. Moving past the deceptive usage of editing software, let’s talk about the fact that within 20 minutes of the explosion, the most important media outlets in the world were accusing Israel of a war crime based on the word of terrorists. The Palestinian Health Ministry in Gaza is run by Hamas. You know that right? Hamas is the governing body of Gaza and they assassinated the PLO leaders present in the region, meaning they control every government branch in the Strip, including the health ministry. The Palestinian Ministry of Health in Gaza somehow counted 500+ bodies at night, in smoke and flames, in less than an hour, and then what we are supposed to consider the most prestigious news organizations in the world just fucking ran with that. And you want me to believe Israel controls the media? Not one outlet even bothered to ask an Israeli official if it had been a deliberate missile attack. They took the word of Hamas, a registered terrorist organization, and ran defamatory headlines that resulted in so much global violence against Jewish temples, cultural sites, and people that Israel was forced to order all of its citizens to evacuate Turkey. They ran headlines that resulted in a sitting Congresswoman inciting another fucking insurrection in the U.S. capitol. Do you understand that? The most influential news outlets in the world blasted “Israel bombed a hospital” onto hundreds of millions of phones within 20 minutes before they even had pictures of the hospital site. The New York Times used an image of a bombed-out building from a completely different location because they jumped the gun that much. They were so eager to publish a story on Israeli war crimes that they didn’t even have a fucking photo of the war crime itself yet.

You want me to believe that the IDF controls the media and the U.S. government, when they can’t even prevent news outlets and sitting Congresswomen from accusing them of war crimes? Excuse me?

there is no unbiased reporting on Israel/Palestine. Our only accurate source is the civilian journalists

You’re right. There is no unbiased reporting on Israel-Palestine when it comes to mass media outlets. The only people we can rely on to be truly objective are independent journalists. You know what independent news journalists were saying the night of the attack on the hospital? That the rocket came from Gaza. People were already aware that there was a volley of rocket fire from the PIJ or Hamas, that it was going to pass by the hospital, and when the explosion happened, they used local news cameras to see that it was a failed rocket from Gaza. Independent journalists got the story right within the same amount of time it took professional multi-billion dollar news agencies to publish blood libel instead of doing their own data analysis investigation, as any professional news outlet should have done.

It’s pretty fucked up that you don’t think the journalists on the ground in Israel are truthful, what’s the deal with that? Do you not like that they're reporting on the dead babies and raped girls and mutilated corpses? Does that not fit your narrative? What’s doubly fucked up is that you point out the independent journalists in Gaza, but it’s clear you’re trying to insinuate that Israelis are killing them. Meanwhile, reporters have been complaining for years about Hamas constantly threatening them and torturing them for reporting about the atrocities Hamas commits against its civilian population. I think if you cared so much about reporters in Gaza that you would maybe point that out. There is no freedom of the press in Gaza. There is freedom of the press in Israel. It's why shit heads like you are allowed to complain about the Israeli government and not get beheaded for it, but Gazans are tortured in basements if they are caught discussing Hamas war crimes.

Before this is reposted and I am accused of being a self-hating Israeli citizen and Jew

Not only are you self-hating, you're also a fucking kapo.

I don't usually talk about Israel/Palestine, but as an Israeli citizen who doesn't support genocide, I need to speak out.

We're seeing, on a massive scale, news websites release articles saying "Israel bombs hospital in Gaza" and revising it to "Israel, Hamas trade blame for hospital bombing in Gaza". Every single news site is doing the same thing.

New York Times, original headline:

New York Times, new headline:

Business Insider, original headline: Hamas says Israeli forces bombed a hospital and killed hundreds of people. The UN has documented dozens of other attacks on healthcare in Gaza." New headline:

Reuters, original headline:

Reuters, new headline:

Politico, original headline:

Politico, new headline:

Boston Globe, original headline:

Boston Globe, new headline:

Financial Times, original headline:

Financial Times, new headline:

Daily Beast, old headline:

Daily Beast, new headline:

Every single news site is changing their headlines, but instead of admitting the correction as is done in every single other instance of this updating, they are acting as if this was always their headline. Note the repeated use of "Hamas and Israel trade blame" in the new headlines. This is the power the Israeli military has over the news, the control the US government exerts over every outlet, and the proof there is no unbiased reporting on Israel/Palestine. Our only accurate source is the civilian journalists being killed in Gaza and having their access to the outside world cut off.

(Before this is reposted and I am accused of being a self-hating Israeli citizen and Jew, I need Zionists to understand that the US military is not Judaism, and making the leap from "the US government exerts control over a lot of media" to "Jews control the media" shows more about you than me.)

[memoriavivens]

Quintus Van Cinna

is quite possibly the most loathsome individual in all of FFXIV (which isn’t to say he necessarily is, there’s some fierce competition). It angers me when I go through Garlemald related content and see people acting like he was some resolute paragon. To briefly summarize his crimes towards us- he puts the twins in actual slave collars, and openly justifies imperialism that he was certainly a leading figure in as the legatus of the very first legion. I’ll have no “it’s their culture to view this as a good thing” excuses here- he’s a military leader, not some cloistered citizen. That’s about it for his onscreen crimes to foreigners, now let’s talk about how he hurts the Garleans themselves. It’s all very blatant, actually- the story makes no secret of how he’s hoarding vital resources that could keep civilians alive in favor of a doomed, naive plan for a counterattack. And when it’s clear at last that this plan won’t work, he doesn’t make any effort to change or even protect his people- he just kills himself. He’s a coward. He’s a glory hound, as evidenced by his stubborn refusal to actually do what he claims he’s doing (protecting the people of Garlemald) in favor of planning another offensive campaign. He is the evil of the Garlean empire given human form, if we’re talking analogies. So this is why it frustrates me so to see him remembered fondly. But it’s not just him that I hate about the way Garlemald is being handled- in fact the current leadership of Garlemald is entirely corrupt and I find it outright irresponsible on many levels for the Ilsabard contingent to pull out now. Need I remind everyone, the current Garlean leadership has allowed literal death machines to roam the streets of their capital city simply because their pride prevents them from letting people help them with this issue. Need I remind you that the surviving senators we meet hog fuel for their bunker while the people in Tertium still freeze. And need I remind you that every influential garlean we meet is openly nostalgic for the days of the empire, days when they would commit cultural genocide continuously, burn cities to the ground, constantly have small civil wars and rather frequently have larger ones, and also TOOK PEOPLE AS SLAVES. I am not trying to say the garleans should be denied help in their time of crisis- just the opposite in fact, for these corrupt leaders are only exacerbating the crisis with their national egotism. National egotism we never get to even slightly condemn. And one final point, back to specifically Quintus- Zenos and Fandaniel didn’t destroy Garlemald by themselves. There was already fighting and chaos in the streets as part of a succession crisis, which they simply took advantage of to create Anima and the Telophoroi. Said civil war had two sides- Vergilia van Corculum led a faction supporting the claimant Nerva yae Galvus, while Quintus led the other side, which believed Nerva unworthy and instead sponsored… no candidate. I repeat, Quintus started the entire crisis just because he didn’t like Nerva. There was no other claimant to the throne, mind. Zenos seems to have been the only other one, and he obviously wasn’t a choice. And Quintus certainly wasn’t going to abolish the monarchy. So as far as we know, this man killed his own empire and started the whole catastrophe for absolutely nothing at all.

[kinnoth]

hi!! i saw your note about tony stark and that you hate him. can i ask why?

Ah buddy

Look, I got nothing against people who like characters/ships I don't like. I don't bother them, they don't bother me. Everyone has a right to exist; everybody has a right to connect to whichever fictional character they want. I've liked characters several multitudes more problematic than Tony Stark myself, the only difference is that I cared about their damage more than I disliked their impact on the world.

But if you're really asking, I'll leave the link to my avengers megathreads here if you really wanna get in depth with it.

Basically he's emblematic of everything the mid 2000s thought a Cool Guy was: a techbro ultracapitalist authoritarian who thinks all elements of the world would be better off if he owned it and all people would be better off if only they would let him be in control. He's irreverent! He's wisecracking! He thinks his endless wealth makes him invincible and boy is society gonna let him prove it!

Like, unfortunately, if we're gonna be fans of the MCU, we have to accept that the MCU is an unsubtle vehicle for casual authoritarianism. Every avenger is a cop; every moral lesson is that we need to trust our police state and, for our own safety, allow them to take from us our self-determination. There's a reason why every avengers movie has borrowed so heavily from the 9/11 imagery of the towers coming down. There's a reason why, despite the vague politics of every avengers movie, the end conclusion is always "no public institution is gonna be as cool or effective as a private army"

There's a reason we have people laudably comparing IRL suckhole Elon Musk to Tony Stark as if anything Elon Musk does or has ever done is worthy of praise or commendation.

We're never going to stop worshipping billionaires if we don't stop worshipping billionaires.

Tony Stark IS a tool of our oppressors.

[thebibliosphere]

Getting a lot of asks about the BBC’s latest documentary ‘Sickness and Lies’ and what I think of it. And honestly? I wasn’t expecting it to be good. The BBC has a bad history with this sort of thing. But I also wasn’t expecting the absolute nightmare that aired.

It’s every hate message and death threat I’ve ever had in regards to being openly disabled online amplified times a million.

It’s disabled hate content, pure and simple. It demonizes disabled and chronically ill people while holding up online hate groups that have harassed people to death--something they conveniently leave out-- as some sort of paradigm of unsung heroics and justice against welfare frauds. Specifically against those with invisible chronic illnesses, and believe me, the timing is not a coincidence.

In the wake of Covid, we are about to witness a mass disability event the likes of which haven’t been seen on a global scale for nearly 100 years. In creating this documentary that seeds doubt and anger into the minds of the general public, the BBC is helping to further the Tory regime in their dehumanization of disabled and chronically ill folk. By portraying them as frauds and fakers, they further enable the Tory justification of denying benefits to the most vulnerable, ensuring that their blatant disregard and abandonment of duty of care is normalized as acceptable because look, look how prevalent faking is! We have a documentary about it! It’s on the BBC so you know it’s legit… even thought they based all their research on a reddit hate forum…

But their incompetence and immorality doesn’t end there, oh no. Along with the title and presentation being outright disgusting and irresponsible, they’ve also stolen content from creators who declined to be involved and voiced their concerns over the creation of such a documentary. @jessicaoutofthecloset said on Twitter that she refused to be a part of it, yet her image is used to promote it. And some of the other featured creators (I’m not going to link to them, their social feeds are already a nightmare) have claimed that their interviews were edited in such a way to make them sound ableist or twist the meaning of their words to fit the “us vs them” dynamic the documentary was trying to instill against “real” disabled people (i.e. visibly disabled) and chronically ill people, which is not at all what they were saying—especially because the person involved is both disabled AND chronically ill.

It’s disgusting, and frankly all the journalists involved should be fired. There is not a shred of ethics or care to be seen for any of the people they have opened up for attack online by listing them openly as disabled content creators. But that won’t happen. Because disabled and chronically ill lives don’t matter. Not when you’ve got ratings and dangerous propaganda to uphold.

I’m not going to say don’t watch it to anyone who is curious. But I will say make sure you’re in an okay headspace to handle it. I was barely able to get through it in the end. And if you’re able bodied and healthy, please watch it with the knowledge that what is being shown is a highly skewed and ableist outlook based on literal hate forums that have harassed people to death for being vocal online about disability activism. These people want us dead. What they are doing is not moral or even needed. Please don’t fall for their lies. Please be better than that. Please be kinder.

Please, I’m so heartbroken and tired.

If anyone has the time and energy, you can help by making a formal complaint to the BBC here: https://www.bbc.co.uk/contact/complaints

I would especially urge able bodied and healthy people to complain and show that this kind of ableist misrepresentation and hate content against the disabled and chronically ill community will not be tolerated without major pushback. Thank you.